pic: MARS 1523 Robot

[Tim Arnold]

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[Swampdude]

I'm happy to see where you guys are at. I think you've got a great looking team and a great little bot. No matter what you think about what you're seeing on these forums, this stuff isn't easy - but you're pulling it all off the first time around! You guys built a very good consistent bot. You also have a great website going. Your mentors are all very good and active. You're off to a terrific start. You're really going to have a lot of fun at UCF. Just enjoy it and soak it up. Congratulations!

[tiffany34990]

good luck to MARS this year!!

saw the bot at the scrimmage and it looked really great!! good job!! it surely caps pretty well. congrats again to the team's success as a rookie team!!

see ya at UCF !

[Andrew Y.]

very nice looking robot.

everything looks so clean on it!

GOOD LUCK!!!

[Tim Arnold]

Thanks to all of you! We really appreciate the support, and are very glad to be with you guys at the regionals. I think we have a great group of teams for the UCF Regionals and it will be a very interesting year.

As for the robot, I wanted to clear up specifics for people who didn't come to 179's awesome scrimmage. First off, the robot frame and arm is made entirely of aluminum posts from outdoor screen enclosures, creating a easy to repair, light, and moderately strong inexpensive frame.

We use gravity a lot on this bot, and the picture shows the stabilizers down, but the arm is still up. Basically what happens is we jerk the robot and gravity pulls the arm and stabilizers to their extended positions. The arm itself is simply a 1" dowel rod wrapped with baseball bat grip rubber.

And believe it or not, we actually are using the camera. We have a 2/3 working autonomous mode as of right now, but we should be able to get it running fully at the competition. The camera can recognize the colors, but just not drive to it (accurately) yet. We in fact captured the first images from it working on the bot the night before ship!

The paper banner on the back of the robot is the only thing that (still) isnt completed. It will be replaced with plexiglass, and it folds in the center for easy access to all equipment. The sides will also have triangular pieces of plexiglass, just not as thick of material.

Anyway, probably way more information than anyone wanted to know, but thanks for stopping by and good luck to all at the competition!

For more information, check out our website at www.kickbot1523.com.

</shamelessplug>

[jgannon]

A lot of teams (ours included) have fallen victim to overengineering this year. I think you'll find that your simple robot will be a very powerful force at UCF. It looks great... best of luck.

[Nate Edwards]

What is the 9v battery for? I am confused about what its for cause I can't see the other side.

[Tim Arnold]

Oh, heh, I forgot to mention that. We have purchaced a wireless camera and will be recording it durring the competition, which will later be posted on our website in an edited video. It pluggs into its own power source - a 9 volt battery. The location in the picture is incorrect, we didn't have time to properly mount it before the 179 scrimmage. It will be eventually mounted on the arm (ooooh, ahhh).

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by robosapien

Oh, heh, I forgot to mention that. We have purchaced a wireless camera and will be recording it durring the competition, which will later be posted on our website in an edited video. It pluggs into its own power source - a 9 volt battery. The location in the picture is incorrect, we didn't have time to properly mount it before the 179 scrimmage. It will be eventually mounted on the arm (ooooh, ahhh).

Whoa, there...the only allowed sources of juice on your robot are the 12v and 7.2v batteries.

Specifically, <R39> comes into play...

Originally Posted by some of R39

Specific items NOT allowed include:
-Batteries different from or in addition to those provided in the kit.

Of course, if you could figure out how to run it on 12v as a custom circuit (and don't forget to get the okie-doke from FIRST Engineering) you should be alright.